An Investigation into Physics Teaching in Senior High Schools

Abstract

This study sought to examine the activities that go on in physics classrooms in Senior High Schools in Ghana. Specifically, the study sought to investigate the pattern of interaction and instructional methods used for teaching physics and level of coverage of physics syllabus. The survey design was employed for the study in which questionnaire was used for data collection. Participants for the study were physics teachers and final year physics students. Findings from the study suggest that classroom interaction seemed to be mostly teacher-centered and tended not to support inquiry-based teaching and learning which is noted for promoting conceptual change and enhance performance. It is recommended among other things that physics teachers should be exposed to efficient pedagogies of teaching and presenting information to learners. The traditional way of teaching where teacher decides on what goes on in the classroom has a limited space in the 21 st century science classrooms, particularly physics.

Teaching and Learning Physics in Senior High Schools in Ghana: The Challenges and the Way Forward

“…They added that, physics teachers do not have the needed content knowledge and pedagogical preparation for teaching physics effectively. This is supported by a study in Ghana by Buabeng et al [17] who concluded that "most of the physics teachers do not have academic qualification and/or certificate in education. What this means is that these teachers may lack the pedagogical knowledge and they are unfamiliar with the teacher actions that support and promote student learning".…”

“…It has been shown that physics content is the least covered among three elective science subjects of biology, chemistry and physics in SHS in Ghana. In a study conducted by Buabeng et al [17], it was shown that, the level of coverage for physics in an academic term as indicated by teachers was about 80% with only 4.8% of the teachers being able to achieve 100% coverage of the content for the term. This implies that physics teachers may not be able to cover all the content so they believe reducing the content will improve the teaching and learning of physics in senior high schools Ghana.…”

“…Physics is a practical subject which requires hand-on activities in a wellequipped laboratories. If laboratory equipment are not available to support practical teaching, then teachers will resort to teacher-centred approaches like lecture methods, question and answer which are known to be the prevalent methods of teaching physics in Ghana [17,26]. These teacher-centred approaches to teaching physics do not make the subject enjoyable to students making some think that physics is a difficult subject which is not meant for all students especially girls [25].…”

“…This can affect their level of preparation and delivery in the classroom. It has been shown that some physics teachers in Ghana have qualification in project management which they believe can be used to search for better paying jobs rather than having professional qualification [17]. It comes as no surprise that the physics teachers believe providing them with better salary can improve physics teaching in the country.…”

“…Some of the physics teachers are trained in other sciences, engineering and business disciplines [16]. The situation is not quite different in Ghana as a study by Buabeng, Ossei-Anto and Ampiah [17] reveals that some physics teachers' professional qualifications are in project management and journalism. For the physics teachers who have the right qualification, courses and experiences which have the possibility of producing valuable knowledge are not normally available during initial physics teacher education [10].…”